The recent rejection of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by the European Parliament was “fundamental” from the perspective of some negotiating partners, and may have proved fatal for the agreement in Mexico, according to an observer.

Mexican IP law expert León Felipe Sánchez Ambía told Intellectual Property Watch that “if there was still a chance for Mexico to ratify the agreement with the coming administration and legislature, I am positive that the rejection of ACTA by the EP puts the last nail on ACTA’s coffin.”

Sanchez Ambia, a professor at the Legal Department of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and partner at Fulton and Fulton SC in Mexico City, had still seen a chance for ACTA in Mexico as of the end of last year.

Now, he said, “It would be madness for the new members of the Mexican Senate to ratify ACTA with the knowledge that their predecessors were opposed to it and that most of the countries that originally supported the treaty now reversed their position and reject it instead.”